Friday, April 8, 2011

Kore wa Zombie Desu ka? - Review

Summary: Aikawa Ayumu is a normal high school boy. One day he is killed by a serial killer and revived as a zombie by a necromancer named Eucliwood Hellscythe. He starts to serve Eu as her guard but he happens to deprive the mahou shoujo Haruna of her magic power. Haruna orders Ayumu to fight against the anti-mahou shoujo system "Megalo" in her place.

Sometimes things doesn’t have to make sense for you to enjoy it and a very good example of that is this very hilarious show: Kore wa Zombie Desu ka? (I’ll just call it zombie alright?).

Story: 8/10 The story revolves around our protagonist Ayumu Aikawa who was murdered one day and turned to a zombie by our lovely necromancer Eucliwood Hellscythe or Eu for short. Shortly after that he absorbed the power of a masou shoujo named Haruna and even met a beautiful vampire ninja who verbally abuses him.That’s just the start of the story as he has to find out the person who murdered him as he get caught up with the various antics of those girls that now lives in his house.

Ha! My summary might mislead you into thinking that this show is your typical harem show but honestly, its more than just that as this show was able to fully utilize its comedy with not just the story, but also the characters to make one hilarious show that certainly packs a punch. I have to admit that a LOT of things doesn’t make sense in this series like why does a zombies doesn’t like sunlight, why in the world did a masou shoujo turned into a masou shounen, why are the monsters/megalo looks like huge whales, how could a ramen kill a megalo, wtf ninja orchestra in maid uniform and many more that I wouldn’t be able to finish this review if I’ll write them all. Actually, who cares? As long as those things made this show uber hilarious I don’t mind. Let’s not forget the action that Ayumu (the best male lead during the winter season) certainly delivers. Ayumu going 100%, 300%, 1000% then punch certainly made him look cool in my eyes. Now here lies the problem since this show is comedy centered, during the dramatic scene everything feels off since I don’t know if I have to take this drama seriously or not but nevertheless this show is still awesome despite that flaw.

Another thing that I like about this show is that even thought its full of comedic moments, the writers/directors certainly made sure that they would still touch up on the plot even though there are still plot holes left behind. Thanks to that we were able to see the characters develop and see another part of their personality and also meet some antagonists whose objectives are questionable.

Overall, good utilization of the comedy, action, character & story but there a LOT of plot holes. I really can’t believe that a show could combine a LOT of different anime elements such as zombie, mahou shoujo, vampire, ninja and a whole lot more and be able to pull it off. That is simply impressive.

Characters: 9/10 Oh hell yeah! The characters of Zombie are really memorable from the silent but moé Eu, the noisy and violent Haruna, the sexy but rude Sera and your normal girl Yuki(Tomonori). Not only those girls packs some memorable personality but also their character design sure push some good buttons on me *drools* haha!! and almost all of them live in Ayumu’s house no wonder Orito is so jealous of him (as I am jealous of Ayumu too) *ahem*. I’d say that the characters in Ayumu’s harem are nicely fleshed out not because we are shown with background stories but because of how they reacted during certain circumstances. I even respected Haruna for a bit since she was willing to help Ayumu even though it means she will lose her chances to him. Another thing that I like is how this show focuses on building the relationship of Ayumu to his harem instead of focusing on the interaction of the characters since that’s a nice change of pace from your usual harem show. Well, yes there are some characters that are left behind like the classmates of Ayumu that suddenly appeared in the first few eps and then vanished and then suddenly appeared in the last episode oh let’s not forget Kyoko the serial killer, I wonder what happened to her.

Animation: 8/10 The animation is good but its only above average nothing spectacular. What I love about the animation is its direction since with it the action scenes have a lot more impact like when Ayumu started extinguishing the lives of Kyoko when he was about to punch then the camera zooms with Kyoko’s eyes. I also the love character design of the characters since they are oh so unique and beautiful. During the action scenes I love how they added a dark, gritty tone to it and then wow, the details of the blood splatters are simply awesome also, somehow out of place with the dark tone is a hint of pink during the transformation of Ayumu. I wouldn’t deny the fact that this show is full of fanservice/service shots but what really impressed me is how it was tastefully done that you don’t have to feel uneasy in watching it. Well, I’m certainly happy with that since I get to see more Eu goodness specially the part where Ayumu day dreams ‘bout the speaking Eu

Sound: 8/10 Somehow I think the bgm is nicely done and definitely fits the scene where it is played and honestly some of the bgm specially the one being played before and after commercial breaks sure got stuck in my head, I even want to make it my message alert tone. After listening to the OP & ED song for a couple of times I began to love them. The OP "Ma・Ka・Se・Te Tonight (魔・カ・セ・テ Tonight)" by Iori Nomizu makes me want to go slash some megalo definitely fits the action that the series promises dance. The ED song on the other hand "Kizuite Zombie-sama, Watashi wa Classmate desu (気づいてゾンビさま、私はクラスメイトです)" by Rie Yamaguchi with manzo is cute, wanna go imitate Eu but on a serious note it reflects the playfulness of this show. What surprised me the most is the amount of seiyuu that voiced Eu which is what around 9 I think so whose the real voice of Eu even the one singing in the last ep? I really love the performance of the seiyuus since they were able to bring their characters to life that definitely suits each every personalities of our characters even thought almost all of them are new (correct me if I’m wrong since those names of the VA….I think it’s the first time I saw them).

Enjoyment: 9/10 Well yes I enjoyed watching this every week since it never fails to make me laugh week after week with its characters and ridiculousness. There was even a cameo of the next antagonist of the series (the drill haired girl in the last ep) which indicates that this might get a season 2. If that’s the case bring on more zombie goodness!